Again Even More Notes on “Civilizations of the Ancient Near East

Witchcraft, Magic, and Divination in Canaan and Ancient Israel by Jean-Michel de Tarragon

• Ancient Semitic world had positive attitude to these things by conviction.
• Divination
  • Little furnished documentation about divination compared to Hittite, Egypt, and Mesopotamia.
  • Many means of divination
    • Prophetic/priestly oracles, spirits, dream, lots, astrology, observation of entrails, birds, oil and water, smoke directions.
  • Best option for seeing HB and divination is through the recent books published by OUP.
  • Consulting God through urim and thummim (Ex. 28:15-30; Lev. 8:8)
  • Dreams: cf. Deut. 13:1.
    • Prophet are okay; divination practice in an oracle sense is okay.
  • Biblical reference to use of teraphim, cult object and sometime divinatory instruments.
    • Sam. 19:13, Gen. 31:9-35, esp. Ez. 21:21
• Necromancy
  • “witch of Endor” – 1 Samuel 28:3-25
  • Deut. 18:10-11 has a ban on divination, soothsayer, and all else of the sort
    • This, though, reflects a late, evolved stage of ancient Israel.
    • Lev. 20:27 – sentence for necromancy is death.
    • See also 2 Kings 21:6
      • Manasseh is condemned for divination.
  • We can assume that “during the centuries of its maturation”, namely Israel’s monotheism, “divination continued to be practiced, hence the repeated condemnation registered in the Bible” (2075).
• Magic
  • Reference to female magician in Ex. 22:18
  • Confusion between divinatory practices and magic (2078)
• Charms
  • In particular, items of apotropaic significance
    • Such as the Ark, where Philistines were sick (1 Sam. 6)
    • Ketef Hinnom inscriptions from the 7th century
      • With proto-Aaronic benidiction (pg. 2079)
    • Texts and designs at Kuntillet Ajrud
      • “I bless you before YHWH of Samaria and his asherah” (2079).
      • “I  less you before YHWH of Temam and his asherah. May he bless (you) and keep (you)” (2079).
      • Dates the 9th century, maybe the mid 10th century.
    • Amulet for Uriyahu
      • “Blessed by Uriyahu before YHWH, and from his adversaries he saved him by his asherah” (2079).
• Critique of this entry: it is less about the idea of magic and divination in a Canaanite context; it is very focused, if not more, on magic and divination in the HB. Karel von der Toorn did a great job at doing Canaan broadly, while noting what made each place unique. This article falls into what C. Euhlinger raises a red flag for.

 

 

And that should be all of my notes from these volumes.

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